


00:00:00

by SailorChibi



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Canon Divergence - Iron Man 1, Iron Man 1, Loki (Marvel) Feels, Multi, Not Thor compliant, Obadiah Stane is an Asshole, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamorous Soulmates, Polyamory, Pre-Iron Man 1, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Protective Loki (Marvel), Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates, The Ten Rings (Marvel), Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor, loki (marvel) is estranged from Thor, loki (marvel) lives on earth, removal of brainwashing, soulmate au - countdown clocks, soulmates work a bit differently for asgardians, tony stark is a badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21527257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: When Tony is wandering the desert following his escape from the Ten Rings, he's found by his soulmates.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Loki, James "Bucky" Barnes/Loki/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 186
Kudos: 2989





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I love soulmate AUs and I love winterfrostiron and when requested to put them together, I was all too happy.

"This is your target. You will break into his home and kill him. You will leave no evidence; you will bring the body back to your handlers."

The words echoed in the Soldier's head as he walked towards the townhouse. It was early in the morning, too early for most people to be up and about, so it was quiet. There was no one to see the Soldier stand in front of a window and use one of Hydra's devices to hack the electronic lock. The window snapped up easily and he effortlessly hefted himself up and over the sill. In a matter of seconds, he was standing inside the living room of one Luke Osmund. His eyes flicked briefly around the room, taking everything in: it was just as his handler had told him it would be.

He moved towards the stairs, gliding soundlessly over the floor. He climbed the stairs to the second floor and was met with five doors. According to Hydra's intelligence, Osmund lived alone. His bedroom was at the front of the house. That was the door that the Soldier chose. He stood in front of said door for a moment, listening intently. Had he heard anything other than quiet, rhythmic breathing, he would have chosen a different tactic. But as it sounded like Osmund was asleep, he drew a knife from the collection at his waist and opened the door.

A hand grabbed his wrist. Instinctively, the Soldier lashed out and made contact. A blow that would have felled a normal man glanced off of the person attacking him; the Soldier was wrenched around and his head was forced up. He found himself looking into icy green eyes. His body had done things against his will before, but it had never been quite like this. The Soldier found his arms and legs falling to his sides. The knife slid from his grasp and landed on the floor, spinning away into the shadows - where, the Soldier didn't know, for he could not turn himself away from those eyes.

Something cold and slippery brushed against his mind.

"Ah," a voice whispered. "That won't do."

And then all he knew was green. Green, and warmth.

When he opened his eyes again, he had a monstrous headache. He lay there for several seconds before realizing with some confusion that he was laying down. His handlers would never have allowed that. He sat up quickly, then gasped as the pain intensified. He gripped his head and braced himself with his elbows to his knees, holding perfectly still in the hopes that the radiating waves of pain would eventually subside. It was nothing like the chair, at least, which was a sharp, crackling pain. This was duller, slower.

"James?"

He opened his eyes and looked up.

Osmund - no, this wasn't Luke Osmund. The profile that he had been given before dictated a man in his late twenties with long, dark hair, green eyes and a cold smile. The man standing here had the same face, but he commanded attention. He was _more_ than Osmund, as though a veil had fallen away and his true presence could finally be shown.

"You are James," the man said with slow, deliberate patience. "Do you remember?"

"I - I am the Soldier," he said, but he didn't think that was true. Not entirely. Not anymore.

"You are not. While you were unconscious, I went through your brain and repaired much of the damage they had wrought. Not all of it, of course. Some will heal with time. Other scars will always remain." There might have been a spark of pity in those eyes. "But you'll learn to live with them, as we all do."

"Who - who _are_ you?!"

"Ah. I am Loki, from Asgard." Loki finally sat, gracefully unfolding himself into a chair beside the bed. "I am your soulmate."

"My... my what?" he said in disbelief.

"Your soulmate. You were born with a clock, were you not? Everyone has at least one..." Loki rolled up the sleeves of the shirt he was wearing. On one arm was a black clock that read 00:00:00, indicating that Loki had already met his soulmate. But on the other arm was a black clock that still had time remaining on it, which meant that Loki had a second soulmate had he not yet met.

And looking at those clocks, written upon pale skin, James remembered. 

Remembered being a small child and asking his mother why he had two clocks, and two white clocks at that.

Remembered his mother tearing up as she told him that two clocks meant two soulmates, but that _white_ clocks meant your soulmates were dead.

Remembered the absolute agony of one of his arms being cut off, and knowing that meant he'd lost one of his clocks.

His breathing quickening, James grabbed his left arm. Loki must have stripped him out of his gear, because he was wearing a pair of boxers and little else. He looked at the inside of his flesh arm and saw that, rather than having a clock on each arm the way he used to, he now had both clocks written on the same arm. Much to his astonishment, they were now both black. One countdown had run out. But the other... His eyes darted back to Loki's arm and he realized with a sense of deepening incredulity that both his remaining clock and Loki's clock had the same amount of time left.

“How?” he said, utterly baffled.

Loki sighed. “That is a long story, but to give you a brief summary… I knew I was going to meet my soulmate tonight. I wasn’t expecting you to break into my townhouse. It didn’t take me long to figure out who you were and why you were. I suppose I should consider it a compliment that Hydra deems me dangerous enough that they want me to be taken out of the equation.” He gave a faint smirk.

James watched him in wide-eyed silence.

“I am an experienced sorcerer,” Loki went on, holding his hand out. Green light swirled above his palm, coalescing into a glowing ball. “Though I admit I am not overly experienced in matters of the mind, I was able to remove much of the brainwashing and mind control Hydra imposed on you. It will take you some time to orient yourself, but you have plenty of that. We’re not due to meet our last soulmate for just over a year.”

“I don’t… I –” James clutched at his head. “My handlers?”

“They’re dead,” Loki said carelessly. “I don’t share.”

“What?” James whispered, unsure of how to take that. Baffled by what had happened. There was so much running through his head that it was overwhelming.

“I killed them. It wasn’t difficult. Humans are so very fragile, especially weak ones who hide behind weaponry.” Something in Loki’s eyes darkened, though his eyes softened when he looked back at James. “You are free of Hydra now. You will never have to go back to them. They will never touch you again.”

It felt like something broke inside of him when he heard that, just cracked open right down the middle. His breath caught as James froze, torn somewhere between disbelief and hope. On rare occasion, when the Soldier was left outside of the chair for too long, he would entertain fleeting thoughts of freedom. But, knowing just how expansive Hydra was, those thoughts had never materialized into an actual plan. He hadn’t dared. The things they would’ve done to him if they’d had even an _inkling_ that he wanted to escape…

“I will protect you,” Loki continued. It wasn’t an offer, or even a comment: it was a declaration that James felt in his very soul.

“But they… and you…” James didn’t even know how to finish that sentence. His head hurt so badly that he broke out into a sweat. His entire world had been flipped on its axis in the span of a few moments.

“Go to sleep,” Loki said, rising. “You still need to heal.”

That was an easy command to follow. In spite of his many questions, James lay back and closed his eyes. Sleep rose up over him suddenly, swallowing him before he had the chance to even ponder whether this was a dream. The bagging thought that perhaps he would wake up in cyro again, or even being punished for a failed mission, followed him into the darkness.

But when he woke, a great deal of time later, he was still in the bedroom and the horrendous pain in his head had greatly lessened. James sat up, realizing that there was no pain in the rest of his body either. That was a novelty; he’d forgotten what it was like to move without something hurting, whether it was welts from whips, marks from the needles they used to give him sustenance, or maintenance on his arm.

He got off the bed and stood there for a long moment, waiting for his next set of instructions, before it occurred to him that no handler would be coming. If Loki was to be believed, there would be no more handlers. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Loki seemed to think he was perfectly capable of taking care of Hydra, but James had seen the worst of what Hydra could do. They did inhumane things without even blinking an eye. He didn’t know if _anyone_ was capable of destroying them.

He would gladly go to his knees for anyone who could, though. The memories of his last time in the chair, and the scars painted across his flesh in certain places, are too fresh for James to even contemplate otherwise. 

Cautiously, he moved to the bedroom door and opened it. He could hear the sound of a television playing in the distance and decided it was safe to venture out. Using the layout of the house, still ingrained in his head, he retraced his path back down the stairs. Honestly, coming into the house with the orders to kill Luke Osmund felt sort of like a dream now, even though he knew it hadn’t been.

Loki was seated in the living room, watching the news and making faces at the television. He looked up when James walked in and said, “Good evening.”

“Is it?” James glanced out the window, then automatically shrunk back when he realized that the curtains were open. Fear tightened his throat briefly. Anyone could look in… Hydra would know exactly where he was because of his last set of orders…

“Relax,” Loki said. “This townhouse is shielded. I only had my shields down last night because my counter was so close to ticking down. I didn’t want to risk missing you.” He studied James for a moment, eyes curiously intent. “They can’t find you here, so long as you remain within the house.”

“And when I don’t? When I leave?” James said lowly, his stomach churning. Not just because of Hydra, but because he also wanted to hear Loki’s answer.

“You are free to leave at anytime you wish, of course. But until we can make bigger problems for Hydra, I would suggest you stay here,” Loki replied.

“Bigger problems?” James repeated.

Loki smiled slyly. “Forgive me. I assumed you’d want revenge on those who had hurt you so badly. Do you not want to destroy their bases and burn them to the ground?”

It turned out that James _did_ want that, very much. “You’d help me do that?”

“You’re my soulmate,” Loki said, shrugging one slender shoulder, as though that explained it all. Perhaps it did. James had heard of people who treated their soulmates gently. It hadn’t been like that in Hydra, of course. And his memories of anything before were extraordinarily fuzzy at best. Plus, Loki had admitted he was from another planet. Maybe soulmates were something special on Asgard. There was really no other explanation for Loki’s kindness, was there?

His head was starting to hurt again. “May I sit?”

“You don’t have to ask. This is your home now too,” Loki said.

James wasn’t so sure about that, but he stumbled over to the nearest chair and sank into it. When he looked at the clocks on his arm again, he quickly figured out that there was over and a year and a half left until he and Loki would meet their other soulmate. That was a very good thing. He didn’t think he could handle too many more shocks right now without falling apart.

He desperately hoped that by the time that clock ran out, the world made a little more sense.


	2. Chapter 2

It was easy to lose track of time in the caves. Time blurred together when you had no concept of day or night. All Tony really knew was that he had been here for a long time… too long. It was getting harder to concentrate; there were days when his head felt as though it was going to float away. In those moments, Yinsen was usually the one who tethered him back to earth.

“You have someone waiting for you,” he’d say, neither happy nor sad, just matter-of-fact. 

One day (or night, who knew?), Tony lost his temper and snapped, “I told you I don’t have a family. I don’t have anyone waiting for me. Why do you always say that?” He pushed aside thoughts of JARVIS, of Pepper, of Rhodey, of Happy. Even Obie. All of them would move on eventually, and their lives would probably be better for it when Tony was no longer around.

Yinsen straightened up, giving Tony that wise look that always pissed Tony off without fail, and gestured meaningfully to Tony’s arms. “Your clocks are going to run down in less than a week, are they not? And they’re both black, which means your soulmates are still alive. They’re out there, Stark. Waiting for you.”

Tony licked his lips, momentarily speechless because he really hadn’t expected that. It was true that both of his clocks were winding down. Curiously, they both had exactly the same amount of time left on them, which meant he’d meet his soulmates at exactly the same time. He assumed that meant they were together, probably dating already, and that they would both be less than impressed to find out that their third soulmate was the worthless Tony Stark. He fully anticipated the meeting would not go well, and had done his best to resign himself to the inevitability of being rejected.

He half-turned away form Yinsen, clearing his throat to give himself time to conjure up decent response. Truth be told, for a long time one of Tony’s clocks had been white. The mystery behind white clocks had never been fully solved; some people believed that a white clock meant your soulmate was either dead or hadn’t been born yet. Others believed that a white clock mean you had no soulmate at all. Still others thought that a white clock meant there was something wrong with the bond. The conspiracy theories behind it all were literally endless.

His white clock had finally turned black about four years ago. There had been no rhyme or reason to it that Tony could figure out: he’d gotten drunk the night before, and, when he finally woke up around 4pm, he hadn’t even noticed at first – and then when he had, he’d thought for sure that he was hallucinating until Rhodey confirmed it. Since then, both his clocks had ticked on in perfect symmetry.

“I don’t know who they are or what they’ll be like. Knowing my luck, they’ll be horrible people,” Tony said at last, unable to bring himself to tell Yinsen his real concern. “Not sure that’s worth living for.”

“Is hope not enough?” Yinsen asked, his eyes dark and intent, and Tony found himself without an answer.

But in spite of himself, that conversation bolstered Tony in ways he hadn’t been expecting. He found himself working harder on their escape plan, not wanting to run the risk of meeting his soulmates _here_ , in these horrible, dark, nightmare-inducing caves. If his soulmates were part of the Ten Rings, he wasn’t sure what he would do. But he knew it wouldn’t go well for anyone.

The day came. Tony escaped. Yinsen bled out mere steps from freedom, a peaceful smile on his face as he died. Tony hated to leave the body behind, but he had no choice; Yinsen’s plea, or maybe command was a better word, for Tony not to waste his life hung heavily over Tony’s head as he ruthlessly opened fire on a few men. He kept going even when his suit was damaged, using a poorly designed jetpack to put as much distance between himself and the cave as possible. 

Crashing on burning hot sand in wide open, warm air had never felt as good as it did then. Every bone in Tony’s body ached, but he was free. Free. He closed his eyes for a moment as tears ran down his cheeks. He hadn’t said as much to Yinsen, but towards the end a small part of Tony had begun to think that both of them might die there. Knowing that he could now go home, if only someone would find him, was incredible.

“I did it, Yinsen,” Tony breathed, opening his eyes. The brightness of the sun made his eyes ache and his head throb after spending so long in the dark with only firelight or artificial light, but he couldn’t even bring himself to mind. He had forgotten how beautiful the sky could be.

He pushed himself up, breathing shallowly as fresh pain flared around his ribs. Tony grunted as he dragged himself to his feet, staggering slightly. All around him was endless swaths of golden sand, with nothing and no one to be seen. He had no idea which direction he was supposed to be going in, but he knew that he couldn’t stand around. If what remained of the Ten Rings found him, his death would be neither quick nor painless.

After kicking sand over what remained of the armor, Tony started to walk. The sand made it difficult, as his feet kept slipping. It was tempting to take off the shoddy remains of his dress shoes, but Tony refrained. Burning the soles of his feet would be worse than slipping no matter how much it jarred his ribs. He gingerly pressed his arms across his chest to help and, in doing so, caught sight of his clocks.

Less than six minutes.

“Seriously? Here?” Tony said out loud, incredulous, watching as the seconds tick down. Who the hell is he bonded to, a couple of cactus?

The thought struck him as absurdly funny and he let out a snort, shaking his head. Of _course_ his clocks were broken. Either that, or he’s hallucinating. Either one was possible at this point, considering the treatment he’d been forced to undergo for the past god only knew how long. He tightened his grip on his ribs and trudged on, wishing he’d thought to grab a cell phone from one of the guards he’d killed. But there just hadn’t been time.

Time had not been Tony Stark’s friend for a while now. That was about to change. Tony may not have known it, but today time was going to save his life. Approximately six minutes later, he watched out of the corner of his eye as the clocks both ticked down to 00:00:00. In spite of himself, he held his breath and waited – even though he was fully expecting that nothing at all would happen.

He nearly had a heart attack when two men suddenly appeared right in front of him, forcing him to lurch to a stop so suddenly that he stumbled and sat down hard. That drew the attention of the two men. They stared at him and Tony stared back, torn between shock and hunger for the sight of anyone who wasn’t either a fellow captive or trying to kill him.

“Holy shit,” one of the men said finally. He was tall, maybe three or four inches taller than Tony when Tony wasn’t wearing his lifts, with dark hair pulled back in a bun and grey eyes. He was wearing a grey button-up shirt, blue jeans, and black combat boots. Curiously, he was also wearing black gloves.

“Well,” said the other man, and Tony’s gaze flicked quickly to him. The second man was even taller than the first, topping his companion by a good two or three inches, and wearing dark denim jeans and a black jacket that was zipped up. He too had long dark hair, though his was gathered back in a ponytail. His piercing green eyes sent a chill down Tony’s spine when their eyes met. 

“You weren’t kidding when you said we’d be drawn right to his side,” the first man said.

The second man let out a breath of annoyance and shook his head. “We weren’t _drawn_ to his side; this isn’t a fairy tale, James. As I told you would happen, I received a vision of where he would be and teleported us here using _magic_.”

“Magic,” Tony said dumbly. This was it. He’d officially lost his mind, hadn’t he? Weeks – months? – of poor nutrition, torture and high stress, coupled with the rising heat, dehydration and infection, had finally gotten to him. This wasn’t really happening. He was hallucinating.

“We need to get him home. I don’t know what the fuck’s been happening, but this isn’t – well, fuck me. You’re Tony Stark,” James blurted out. He’d taken a few steps closer to Tony as he spoke, and that enabled him to finally get a good look at Tony’s face through the dirt, blood and bruising. Tony blinked back at him, stunned into silence.

“Tony Stark,” the second man murmured. He didn’t move, but stared at Tony with open fascination.

“Loki!” James snapped finally. “There’ll be plenty of time for you to be creepy later. If we don’t do something like _now_ , our first meeting with our soulmate is going to be our last!” 

“Right.” Loki gave his head a brisk shake and inquired, “The people who did this to you, are they still alive?”

“Why?” Tony asked warily.

“Because I’ll kill them if they are,” Loki said, as though that should have been obvious, and James clapped both hands to his face and groaned so loudly that anyone passing by would’ve thought that he was the one with an arc reactor in his chest.

Safe in his theory that this had to be a hallucination, Tony said, “I killed a lot of them, but I was pretty focused on escaping. So some of them probably escaped too.”

“Oh, now you’ve done it,” James said with a sigh, kneeling down on the hot sand. “May I touch you?”

“Uh, sure,” Tony said, baffled. He found himself tensing as James reached for him in spite of the given permission, because the only person who had touched him kindly in weeks had been Yinsen, but James’s touch was unexpectedly gentle. His gloves were deliciously cool against Tony’s hot face, brushing sweaty strands of hair away from Tony’s forehead. In spite of it all, Tony found himself leaning helplessly into the touch.

“We need to get you out of here,” James murmured, the words spoken more to himself than to Tony. 

“How long has it been?” Tony blurted out before he could stop himself.

“Just over three months,” Loki said, his eyes refocusing on Tony with unsettling intensity. 

Three months. The information, if it was true, was dizzying to contemplate. He’d known it was a while, but _three months_? Twelve weeks. A quarter of a year.Tony reeled from the impact of that information. No wonder it had felt like an endless eternity. Suddenly he understood why the Ten Rings had grown impatient to the point where they threatened Yinsen: Tony had probably pushed their timeline far past what they expected.

“Loki, do your thing,” James said impatiently. “You can come back and kill whoever you want when we’re all safe.” He gave Loki a stern look.

“Oh fine,” Loki said, moving closer. He set on hand on James’s shoulder and the other on Tony’s. Tony wasn’t prepared for just how heavy that hand felt: as though it was pressing him down into the sand. His eyes fluttered shut under the strain for just a moment, and when he looked again the desert was gone.

Instead, impossibly, they were kneeling in a living room. Outside the window, the sun was just coming up, casting a warm, golden glow over grass and townhouses. People were leaving their homes to go to work and take their children to school. Tony stared through the glass with wide, stunned eyes, not even reacting when Loki straightened up and eased up on that pressure.

“Am I hallucinating?” Tony croaked.

“No,” James said, very softly.

“I’m dreaming,” Tony said, unable to look away. “Or I’m dead. The Ten Rings finally lost their temper and killed me.”

“You’re not dead, but they will be,” Loki promised.

Tony couldn’t bring himself to respond to that. He couldn’t shed the thought that if he looked away from the scene outside, it might disappear. So he stared, ignoring whatever else James and Loki were doing around him, until the strain on his body grew too great and he collapsed. He never hit the floor – James caught him – but Tony was far too gone to care about things like that.


	3. Chapter 3

James didn’t allow himself to truly breathe until after Loki had departed from the house; there was a recognizable gleam in Loki’s eyes that strongly suggested that Loki was heading right back to the Afghan desert to finish off what Tony had begun. Trying to hold Loki back would only result in _more_ destruction, not less. So as soon as Tony was stable, and on his way to healing, Loki was gone.

“You’ll be okay,” James whispered to Tony’s unconscious form. In spite of his words, there was a troubled frown on his face as he regarded Tony’s chest. _Physically_ Tony would be okay, because, as James had learned firsthand last year, Asgardian magic and healing was truly a wonderful thing. What would take Tony literally weeks, if not months, to heal from the mortal way was being drastically sped up. Already, some of the smaller cuts and scars around the object in Tony’s chest were gone.

 _Mentally_ , on the other hand, was a whole different ballgame and one that James wasn’t equipped to give an opinion on. He didn’t know very much about Tony Stark. Actually, considering that you couldn’t believe everything the media told you, James could safely say he knew nothing about Tony Stark beyond the fact that Tony had been missing for more than three months and that efforts to find him were slowly dwindling. Most people believed that he was dead. Maybe he would be, wandering out in the desert, if it weren’t for Loki.

It turned out that soulmates worked a little differently for Asgardians. On Earth, fate or coincidence or whatever people wanted to call it usually arranged things so that soulmates were in the same vicinity when their clocks ran out. On Asgard, considering that interplanetary traveling was a thing, people would get a mental glimpse of where their soulmate was located and feel a powerful pull. That enabled them to travel, either by magic or some other design, to where their soulmate was.

That was how they’d known where Tony was. James had been sitting in his favorite chair, watching his clock tick down to zero, when Loki suddenly gripped his shoulder and teleported them without warning. It was disorienting to find yourself on a whole other continent without warning, but all of James’s annoyance had swiftly died away when he caught sight of Tony. 

He’d managed to keep from freaking out when Tony collapsed just barely. Loki was the one who panicked. Between calming Loki down and caring for Tony, James was officially exhausted – and he had the strong feeling that their troubles had only begun. He looked down at Tony again, taking in the metal object embedded in Tony’s sternum. That was the cause of the infection, no doubt.

There had to be a reason it was there. He just hoped that it wasn’t some kind of torture device, because he hadn’t dared to try and touch it. Unconsciously, he gripped his shoulder where his metal arm met flesh. He wore black gloves and long sleeves to cover up the metal when he went out to avoid questions. At least his arm was easily covered. Something like this in your chest, on the other hand…

He shuddered slightly and shook his head, standing up. They’d have to leave Tony to heal for a while. Then… then what? James didn’t know. He assumed Tony would have to go back to Stark Tower. He briefly contemplated calling someone, like Obadiah Stane or Pepper Potts – both of them had been quite vocal in their search efforts. But he ultimately decided against that. Who knew if Tony actually liked either one of them? The world had waited three months for Tony’s return; it could wait another couple days.

James was reading quietly beside the bed when Loki returned almost a full day later. He glanced up, taking in the victorious smirk on Loki’s face, and couldn’t help rolling his eyes. Loki merely grinned in return and swooped down to press a sweaty, bloody kiss to James’s mouth. James kissed him back in spite of it all, only pushing him away when the stench got to be too much.

“You need a shower,” he said, gently pushing Loki back.

“I know,” Loki said, unrepentant. “I’ve finally figured out what my brother finds so enjoyable about battle. How is Tony?”

“Better. His fever’s dropped a degree,” James replied, deciding to leave the comment about Loki’s brother alone for now. Loki rarely spoke about Thor, and James had figured out a long time ago that those conversations were always fraught with potential mines that it was easy to stumble into. 

“Good. I have more of the salve if you have need of it,” Loki added.

“Maybe later. I just put some on,” James said, settling back down with his book as Loki went into the bathroom. He heard the shower start up and smiled to himself.

It was probably unhealthy to take so much joy in Loki’s fierce protectiveness, but then James had never claimed to be a mentally or emotionally healthy person. Seventy-some years of torture in the hands of Hydra had seen to that. The past year had done James a lot of good, but he was the first to admit that there would always be shadows from what he’d suffered.

At a soft sound from the bed, James’s eyes snapped to Tony just in time to see Tony’s eyelashes fluttering. It seemed that the shower had woken him up. Though his instinct was to hover over Tony, James forced himself to keep a distance. Tony had been held in captivity for three months, and it seemed unlikely that he would be thrilled to find himself around strangers when he woke.

Sure enough, Tony suddenly snapped awake with a gasp. His eyes darted around the room before focusing in on James with feverish intensity. He stared hard, fingers plucking at the bedspread. Then he realized what he was doing and looked down. Slowly, he set a trembling hand against the sheets. They were very soft, James knew. Probably the softest thing Tony had felt in well over twelve weeks.

“Hi,” James said, keeping his voice gentle. “How are you feeling?”

“I wasn’t hallucinating,” Tony whispered. “Or… I’m still hallucinating?”

His uncertainty made James’s heart ache. He shook his head. “I can promise I’m not a hallucination, Tony.” Some days, James _wished_ life could be that easy.

“You know who I am,” Tony said, eyes snapping back up to James’s face.

“Most people do. Everyone knows that you were missing,” James told him. 

“And you found me through… through magic,” Tony said. He spoke the word with a certain amount of distaste, or maybe confusion. That was fair. James hadn’t thought much of magic either until it became a basic part of life. To know Loki was to know magic.

He nodded. “Loki has magic. He’s not from Earth.” He rolled up the sleeve of his flesh arm to show Tony his clocks. “Mine were white for a long time. Weren’t yours?”

“One of mine was,” Tony said, eyebrows furrowed, and James immediately realized what that meant. Of course. Both of his clocks had been white while Loki was on Asgard and before Tony was born. The clock representing Tony had turned black when Tony was born, and the clock representing Loki had turned white when Loki came to Earth. He just hadn’t known the significance of that at the time.

“That was Loki,” James told him, deciding to leave the tale of Hydra’s Winter Soldier for another time. 

“Because he’s not from Earth,” Tony repeated.

“Right. He’s from Asgard,” James said.

“Asgard.” Tony put a shaking hand to his forehead. “I’m starting to think that I might be hallucinating again.”

James huffed a laugh. “Sorry. I know it’s a lot. It was a lot for me too. But… considering that you’d still be out there wandering the desert without Loki, it seemed like I should be upfront about it. Magic is real, aliens are a thing, and you’re soulbonded to one of them.”

Tony stared at him for a long moment before he said, “If you hadn’t… what, teleported?” He waited for James to nod, and then continued disbelievingly, “Teleported me halfway across the world, I would think that you were lying to me. As it stands, I’m wondering if this is some kind of bizarre trick from the Ten Rings to get me to agree…” He looked around the bedroom again. “You’re not going to start asking me to build weapons, are you?”

“That’s what they wanted?” James said, feeling a flicker of anger. He supposed it made sense: even Hydra loved the toys they got from Stark Industries. There were whole divisions dedicated solely to attempts at replicating Stark weaponry.

“Yeah. They wanted me to build them a bomb,” Tony said. He took a deep breath. “So. Aliens are a thing.”

“Apparently,” James said.

“He doesn’t exactly look like I thought he would,” Tony said. “He looks so… human.”

“Um, I guess that the whole little green men with probes thing is vastly overrated,” James replied. He was startled when Tony laughed. The sound cut off quickly - _too_ quickly, in James’s opinion – as Tony hissed in pain and grabbed at his side.

“Shit! That hurts!” Tony gasped, pulling the covers down to get a better look at his chest. James eyed the damage critically, relieved to see that it had healed further since he’d last applied the salve. 

“I think we have some pain medication. I can get it for you,” James said, standing up.

“Wait. How the fuck – my skin was literally shredded,” Tony said, pressing a hand to the metal object in his chest. Louder, he repeated, “How the fuck?!”

“Magic,” Loki said, gliding into the room. James swallowed at the sight of him. Loki was one of those people who liked to air dry after a shower, but he used magic to keep his clothing dry at the same time. It was utterly maddening to watch water droplets slowly trickle down the strong line of Loki’s jaw, knowing that the perfectly dry clothing hid so much more.

“Magic?” Tony said, and now his voice was a thin squeak.

“I brought several things with me when I left Asgard. My… mother taught me how to make the one that James used on you,” Loki said. “Every time I make it, I infuse it with a part of my magic. That’s why you’ve healed so quickly.”

Tony just stared at him, lips parted soundlessly.

“You’re not fully healed, though,” James said, deciding he’d best speak up. “As you noticed. I think you have some broken bones. I mean, even with the salve and some of Loki’s better potions, it’ll still take you a while to fully heal.”

“Potions,” Tony muttered to himself.

“I’ll get them,” Loki said, stalking out of the room like the dramatic little shit he was.

“Is there any chance of me leaving to be seen by an actual doctor?” Tony asked after a long pause.

Something in James’s heart turned over. “You’re not a prisoner here, Tony. You’re free to leave anytime you want.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “Really.”

“Yes, really. I mean… you’re our soulmate. Loki and I would like to get to know you,” James said honestly, sinking back down into the chair. “But we both understand that you have a life. There were people looking for you. They miss you. They care about you. I’m sure you care about them, too.” He struggled to keep the bitterness out of his voice. So far as he knew, no one had looked for him. Not after Steve’s plane went down only a couple of days after Bucky Barnes fell from the train.

There was another significant pause before Tony spoke again. “Okay. Sure. I can pick up the phone right now and call my friend.”

“If you want to,” James said with a shrug, grabbing the phone and handing it over. “Err… if you could not mention the whole magic thing though, that would be great. Loki is trying to keep a low profile.”

Tony looked at the phone, looked at James, and raised critical eyebrows. “How exactly am I supposed to explain my miraculous return to the United States otherwise?”

“Uh,” James said. 

Tony sighed and set down the phone. “This is going to be a long day,” he muttered to himself, and honestly James couldn’t argue with that.


	4. Chapter 4

So, Tony had soulmates. That was a thing that he was still struggling to wrap his head around even as he bid them both goodbye and walked out the door, down the front steps, across the lawn, and got into the back of the cab that was waiting out front. True to Loki’s word, the cab driver didn’t blink an eye at Tony. Exactly as though Tony was any other passenger, the cabbie asked where Tony wanted to go.

“Stark Tower,” Tony said, equal parts baffled and awed. Magic was the second thing he was having a hard time coming to terms with. But the past week had shown him that it definitely existed, and that Loki was an expert wielder to boot. How else could he explain the literally magical recovery that he had undergone, or even the fact that the cabbie didn’t recognize him at all? Loki had cast an illusion and promised that it would last until Tony spoke the proper word to make it fade away.

He had actually spent much of the past week sleeping in between occasional bouts of waking long enough to eat and, on two occasions, shower with James's help. Tony had always thought that if he was fortunate enough to have soulmates who didn't hate him, that it was likely his soulmates would be just like everyone else in that they'd want things from him. James and Loki hadn't been like that at all. Every time he woke, one or both of them had been at his bedside. When he'd said he had to leave, they hadn't tried to stop him. The only thing James had asked for was Tony's number, and since Tony's cell had been destroyed Tony couldn't even give him that.

So James had given Tony his phone number instead. Tony wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it. But it felt good knowing that he had the numbers in his pocket.

Truly, they were an enigma that Tony wasn't sure how to deal with yet, and so he was resolving to put both of his soulmates to the side for now so that he could focus on getting back to the tower and to his friends. No one knew that he had been rescued yet. Tony planned to tell a select few people the truth about how he'd gotten back to New York and let the rest of the world believe he'd been rescued by the military. And he didn't plan to tell _anyone_ just how badly he had been hurt. Pepper and Rhodey would only freak out if they knew how close Tony had come to dying. 

He touched a hand to his chest, which was mostly healed, then shifted in his seat. Midday traffic meant that it took some time for the cab to get to the tower, but Tony didn't mind. This was the first time in literally months where he'd had a moment to himself, and he indulged in it. Very shortly, he was going to be under a lot of attention and his alone time was going to be scarce. What little free time he did have was going to be spent down in his workshop. He'd dreamt a lot during that week in bed. Visions of a red-and-gold suit of armor danced in his head.

"Stark Tower," the cabbie announced.

"Thanks," Tony said, passing him the fare. He owed James $50 now on top of everything else. There was no way he was ever going to be able to pay them back, but now wasn't the time to think about that. He sternly pushed those thoughts aside as well and got out of the cab.

Honestly, Tony hadn't realized how much stress he was carrying on his shoulders until he walked into Stark Tower and made his way back behind the counters to his personal elevator. Miraculously, neither reception nor security noticed him, and he was able to use the biometric handprint to get the elevator doors open without anyone paying him attention. As he stepped inside, he mused that he either needed to fire several members of his staff or thank Loki for adding something to the illusion to make it so that people didn't notice him. It was most likely the latter.

"Please identify yourself or I will call security."

JARVIS. Tony melted against the wall, closing his eyes against the burn of tears. God, how he'd longed to hear the voice of one of his oldest and most trusted friends. 

"You have thirty seconds -"

"It's me, J," Tony whispered. "Green." As he spoke the word, a chill ran through him and he shivered.

"Sir?" JARVIS sounded shocked.

"Yeah." Tony drew in a shuddering breath and opened his eyes. "Fuck, it's so good to hear your voice." JARVIS. JARVIS was the one person who Tony would be able to tell everything to. 

" _How_?!" JARVIS demanded. "Sir, we have been searching for you! I've been -"

"I know, J, I know. I'm sure you searched harder than anyone. And I will tell you everything, I swear, but first I need you to call Pepper, Rhodey and Obie and tell them all to get their butts here stat," Tony said. Pepper and Obie would be easier to get here than Rhodey. He was sure that Rhodey was probably somewhere in Afghanistan, scouring the desert for any sign of Tony.

"Of course," JARVIS said. "And may I say... welcome home, Sir."

Tony's eyes stung again. "Thanks."

The elevator finally moved, gliding up to the penthouse. The doors swished open and Tony stepped out, looking around. As expected, the floor looked virtually untouched. No one came up here if Tony wasn't around: this was his private floor. Right now, it was one of the best things Tony had ever seen. He moved forward and touched the countertop. It was hard and cold beneath his fingertips. He breathed shallowly, drinking everything in. He was sure that JARVIS had kept up the food delivery while he was gone, so there were probably a dozen things in the fridge for him to eat if he wanted. A far cry from the sludge he'd been offered while kidnapped.

He sank down into one of the stools at the island, suddenly feeling a little lightheaded. He blamed it on not being fully healed. It wasn't at all because there had been several moments where he'd been sure that he would never see this place again.

The elevator doors opened behind him and Pepper burst out with a cry. "Tony!"

"Pep!" Tony barely had the chance to get to his feet before she was across the room and throwing her arms around him with such force that Tony winced. Over her shoulder, he caught sight of Obie coming out of the elevator as well. Obie looked shell-shocked, staring at Tony like he'd seen a ghost. Tony offered him a tentative smile.

"I can't believe it. We thought you were dead!" Pepper gasped, pulling back to look at him. Her eyes were full of tears as she gently patted at his chest. "How are you here?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Obie said, walking over. "Tony. Good to see you." He offered Tony a hand. Tony shook it.

"It's a long story, but basically the military is the shining hero of it all," Tony replied.

“The military,” Obie said skeptically.

“That’s right. They rescued me and brought me back under a code name so that no one would know,” Tony said. He could tell that Obie didn’t believe him for a second. For a moment, he was tempted to tell Obie the truth. After all, Obie was like an uncle to him. He’d been at Tony’s side for longer than anyone. 

“But Rhodey didn’t know,” Pepper said, and Tony blinked, and the moment was lost. Right. He needed to focus.

“I think it was so high up even Rhodey didn’t know. But I’ve asked JARVIS to contact him, and I’m sure Rhodey will be around shortly,” Tony said. Or at least he hoped that would be the case.

“Tony… Tony, what _happened_?” Pepper said. “You just… disappeared.”

Tony’s smile faded as the memories overcame him again. The convoy. That poor soldier. Waking up in the cave to find Yinsen. All of that over some stupid weapons. He would never forget the sight of that missile hitting the ground and seeing the Stark Industries logo on the side of it. Nor would he forget the complete panic in Yinsen’s face as the Ten Ringers threatened him to make Tony comply with their desires to have more weapons. More bombs. More opportunities to cause death and bloodshed.

“I was kidnapped,” Tony said finally. “They wanted me to make weapons for them. So… I’ve decided…” He glanced from Pepper to Obie. It was only right that they hear this first. “Effective immediately, Stark Industries won’t be producing weapons anymore.”

“What?!” Obie exclaimed.

“Are you sure?” Pepper said at the same time, looking stunned.

Tony nodded. “I plan to call a press conference to announce it.”

“Tony, you’re not thinking straight,” Obie said. “This could ruin your father’s company!”

“It’s not my father’s company. It’s _my_ company,” Tony said. “And I think this is the right choice.” He stared Obie in the eyes, daring him to argue. Obie’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing.

“Do you want me to call the press conference?” Pepper asked, and honestly that was what Tony loved about her. She didn’t argue or try to talk him out of it, and that meant she agreed with his decision and thought it was for the best. Otherwise, she would’ve spoken her mind. Tony caught her hand and gave it a squeeze, grateful for the day that he’d made the decision to hire her. What would he have done without Pepper?

“Please,” Tony said.

“Okay. I’ll do it right now,” Pepper said, slipping effortlessly into business mode. She took out her phone and moved aside to make some calls.

“Tony, this is a mistake,” Obie said in a low tone, stepping closer.

“You think?” Tony said.

Obie scowled. “Yes, I do. Weapons manufacturing makes up a good chunk of Stark Industries. It’s what we’ve always done. Our stocks will plummet – you’ll put people out of work! What will the Board thing? What will all of our investors think? We’ll become the pariah of the business world! No one will want to work with us!”

“I’ve put some serious thought into this. It’s not just a whim, Obie. I’m taking the company in a different direction. A _better_ direction,” Tony said firmly. “If companies that only build weapons decide they don’t want anything to do with us that’s fine, but no one is going to lose their job and our stocks will be just fine. There are new areas we can grow into.”

Obie gripped Tony’s arm painfully hard. “Let’s think about this before you do anything rash. You were locked up for three months. Like I said, you’re not thinking straight.”

“I beg to differ. For the first time ever, I feel like I am thinking straight,” Tony said quietly, yanking his arm out of Obie’s grip. 

He wasn’t surprised when Obie scoffed and stormed out of the room; he’d known that the decision wouldn’t make Obie happy, though he hadn’t expected quite that strong a reaction. He stuffed his hand into his pocket and found himself curling his fingers around the phone number that James had given him. It was just a scrap of paper, easily lost, but suddenly Tony couldn’t wait to input the number into a phone – or better yet, give it to JARVIS. He didn’t know his soulmates well, but at least they haven’t seemed to expect anything from him.

“Okay, it’s done,” Pepper declared, snapping her phone shut. She moved back to Tony’s side and rested a hand on his shoulder, far more gently than Obie had done.

“Thanks,” Tony said, managing a smile.

“It was no problem, I - Tony, are you okay?” she asked. “You’ve been through something extremely traumatizing.”

“Gonna tell me I’m not thinking straight?”

“No. Not at all. I’m just worried,” Pepper said kindly. “I’ve been… really worried.” Her eyes brightened with tears. 

“Aw, Pep. I’m okay,” Tony said, even though he was no longer sure that was true. He let her hug him again, and, without Obie around, he could admit to himself that it felt really nice to be hugged. To be touched with familiarity and comfort, not with intent to hurt or by strangers. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her shoulder, pretending that everything was okay.


	5. Chapter 5

Tony Stark had made a lot of mistakes in his life, but never one as severe as this.

He lay on the couch, muscles locked in place, as Obie - no, as Stane reached down and removed the reactor. The sudden, sharp pain made Tony feel like he was having a heart attack, which wasn't as far off the mark as he would have liked it to have been. Air rattled uselessly in his throat as Tony struggled to draw in a breath, but it was like nothing in his body wanted to respond to him. The only thing he could do was stare up at Stane's stupidly smug face as Stane straightened up, idly looking the arc reactor over like it was an interesting rock.

"We could have really been something, Tony," Stane mused, shaking his head with mock regret. "With your brain and my business skills, we could've taken over the world. It's a shame that you allowed your heart to get in the way."

If Tony could have, he would have surged up, punched Stane in the face, and demanded to know what the hell he thought he was talking about. Stane didn't have business skills. He didn't even have contacts. That was all Stark Industries. All Stane was capable of was being a leech. More than anything, Tony wished he could have seen that coming sooner. 

"You created something incredible, but you're greedy and want to keep it to yourself. Ingenuity like this should be shared amongst everyone, particularly with those of us who know what to do with it." Stane smirked then, and it was like he became an entirely different person. Gone was the affable, good-natured, fatherly man who had helped Tony figure out what to do after his parents died.

Now, the man staring down at him was cold and cruel through to the bone. It slowly dawned on Tony that Stane had never cared about him. Not really. He had never seen Tony as anything other than a tool to be used at Stane's discretion. That knowledge was devastating and hurt almost as much as the effects of the sonic taser. Six months ago, Tony would've said that Obadiah Stane was like a father to him. There was a certain irony in the fact that both of Tony's "fathers" had been toxic, evil men who were only out for their own self-interests, wasn't there?

"Tony, Tony, Tony. It's just such a shame that you're not good enough," Stane went on. "I had plans for you, my boy. But you've cut them short, and you've outlived your usefulness. I've already made arrangements for what happens next. You might think that Potts is enough, but good help is so hard to find these days. Luckily for you, you won't be around long enough to care."

Tony gurgled, choking a bit on his own saliva since he was incapable of swallowing. He wanted to know what Stane had done, or was going to do, to Pepper. He knew he shouldn't have involved her in this. If something to Pepper or Rhodey - if it was all Tony's fault - 

Stane laughed to himself and finally tucked the arc reactor away in his pocket. "Well, I would say it's been a pleasure, Tony, but it really hasn't. You have no idea what it was like pretending to care about you all these years. The whining, the complaining, the sheer ineptitude... It's a good thing your mother and father weren't around to see what a huge disappointment you've become. You'd break your poor mother's heart." He chuckled again and moved out of sight, walking over towards the door. 

But of course, Stane couldn't leave without one last parting remark. He called out, "Do try to die with a modicum of self-respect. I'd hate for the cleaners to have a huge mess to clean up." And then, a moment later, the door swished open and closed and his footsteps faded away entirely.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the feeling faded back into Tony's body. It started in his extremities when he was able to flex his fingers, and then swept inwards. His chest really began burning then, with a ferocity that left him feeling light-headed for a wholly different reason. Not only had his already damaged heart just been hit by a sonic taser, but the arc reactor was gone. That meant the metal shards were going to start moving again. He estimated that he had about ten, maybe fifteen, minutes before he'd have the first of many heart attacks.

"Fucking... asshole..." Tony rasped out, forcing himself to roll over. He literally fell off the couch and landed on his hands and knees. The force of the blow rattled his whole body and brought tears of sheer pain to his eyes. It was tempting, too tempting, to lay down and die right where he was. Only the thought of his friends got him moving. His friends... and his soulmates.

He hadn't really reached out to Loki or James over the past three weeks. He would answer the occasional text but had managed to dodge any in-person meetings. He was really regretting that right now. At the time, it seemed to make sense: surely, given enough time, they would realize they wanted nothing to do with Tony Stark. Plus, he'd told himself that he didn't have the time when he was trying to deal with both the company and perfecting the Iron Man armor. Now he realized that was a mistake. Another mistake on an endless list. A mistake he hoped he lived long enough to rectify.

"JARVIS... hey... can you..." Tony couldn't even finish the sentence. He was too winded. But it wouldn't matter anyway, would it? He'd told JARVIS to spin down. Stupid. _Stupid_. Why the hell had he listened to Stane? He should've known better than that! Stane's resignation had caught him off guard... he never would have powered JARVIS down otherwise. And now he was going to pay for that decision with his life. Unless...

With great effort, the world spinning and turn black around the edge, Tony lifted his head to look up at the shelving unit that lined the wall. The original arc reactor was still there. If he could get to it – it wasn’t nearly as good as the one that Stane had stolen, but it would keep Tony alive until he could get the new one back. He ground his teeth together as he pushed himself up on shaking arms.

The room had never seemed as big as it did now. Tony had to claw at the couch to get himself up, and even then his legs shook so badly that he nearly faceplanted the moment he released the couch. He stared at the distance between him and what would save him. There was nothing else he could do but try to make it to the shelf and hope that he could get there. No, he _had_ to get there. If he didn't, that meant Stane would win and do god only knew what to the company and to Pepper... it meant that he would never get the chance to know his soulmates the way he wanted to...

No sooner did that thought cross his mind than the door to the room exploded. Tony flinched in surprise. His concentration broken, his legs folded beneath him and dumped back on the ground. He landed with a pained cry, everything hurting approximately ten times worse than it had when he'd first hit the ground when Stane tased him. His immediate thought was that Stane had returned, not content to let time finish Tony off. But that didn't seem right either. Stane had never been the kind of person who did his own dirty work. That was why he'd hired people to kidnap Tony in Afghanistan in the first place.

"Tony!" a familiar voice called out.

"Rhodey?" Tony said in disbelief, pushing himself up just a little this time.

Three men emerged from the smoke, one incredibly familiar and the other two less so. It was Rhodey, James and Loki. Tony stared in shock as Rhodey and James rushed over to him. They knelt beside him and helped him to sit up; Rhodey braced him, letting Tony lean against his chest and keeping Tony from having to support himself, while James very gently patted Tony's body down to find the damage. His jaw tightened and his eyes darkened with anger when he observed Tony's chest and the blatantly missing arc reactor. Loki, on the other hand, stood over them all with an expression of incandescent rage that made the hair on the back of Tony's neck stand up.

"Where is it?" James asked him quietly. "Tony, your reactor, where is it?"

"Stane... Stane took it..." Tony whispered. Even speaking cost him huge amounts of energy now.

"Obadiah Stane?" Rhodey questioned, sounding furious. "I always knew that asshole couldn't be trusted. How dare he do this to you!"

"Do you have a spare?" James said.

Tony made a weak sound and gestured towards the shelf. All three heads swivelled to face said shelf, but it was James who leapt up and rushed over to the gift that Pepper had given to Tony. He broke it easily with his bare hands, seizing the reactor inside and hurrying back to Tony. He knelt again and carefully inserted the arc reactor back into Tony's chest. Tony kept his eyes shut but gasped the moment he felt the reactor click into place. The horrendous pain in his chest suddenly eased, though that only seemed to make the pain everywhere else in his body that much more pronounced.

Still, he felt capable of speaking now and opened his eyes. "How did you get here?" he asked, baffled.

"JARVIS messaged me and Loki," James said. 

"Pepper called me," Rhodey said at almost the same time.

JARVIS? Tony exhaled slowly in relief. JARVIS must have sensed something was wrong and reached out to James and Loki right before powering down. They were the last people he had texted today, after all. And Pepper... sweet Pepper. He was the luckiest man in the world.

"Are you okay now?" James asked.

"No," Tony said, holding back a laugh at the very idea. He was so far from okay... but that didn't matter. "I have to go after Stane. He's gonna destroy the city."

"Tony, you can't. You can barely stand," Rhodey said. In spite of what he said, he helped Tony to get to his feet.

"I don't care. Rhodey, someone has to stop him. He has my reactor and a copy of my suit. He'll kill people," Tony said anxiously.

"Your friend is right. You're in no condition to be fighting right now," Loki said. " _I_ will stop him."

That pronouncement stopped everything. They all looked at Loki. Loki's eyes were glowing a faint green. Rhodey shifted nervously.

"Uh, Tones, who did you say your soulmates were again?" he whispered.

"I didn't," Tony said with a sigh. "Loki, you don't have to do that. This isn't your battle."

"You are _my_ soulmate. That makes this my battle," Loki said calmly, the glow around him spreading and deepening. Rather than be intimidated though, as Rhodey clearly was, the sight of the magic was comforting. Tony could still remember how Loki had promised to kill the Ten Rings after they'd rescued Tony. Loki had carried through on that promise, leaving the main faction dead. When rescuing Gulmira, it had only been the lowest of the low that Tony had dealt with.

He realized suddenly that he trusted Loki and James. When had that happened?

"Hey. It'll be okay," James said, mistaking Tony's awe for consternation. "I know you feel like you have to do this, but you should let Loki and - Rhodey? Go."

"It's Jim, actually. James Rhodes," Rhodey said.

James smiled slightly. "Jim. I'm James, and the psycho over there is Loki."

"I'm going," Loki announced.

"Wait!" Tony said. "Rhodey, will you go with him?"

"What?" Rhodey said, blinking.

"I'm worried about Pepper. Stane was after her too," Tony said, turning slightly and grabbing Rhodey's hand. "Please. If you go, you can make sure she's out of the way before anything dangerous happens. I'll be okay here with James."

Rhodey frowned but nodded. "Okay. Just... don't do anything stupid."

"Who me?" Tony said innocently, and Rhodey snorted as he walked over to Loki. He was clearly about to ask how Loki wanted to do this when Loki grabbed Rhodey's shoulder and they both vanished. Tony was definitely going to pay for that later.

But for now, warm arms wrapped around him. His body sagged without his permission and he melted into James's chest, his legs suddenly feeling too weak to support him after everything that had happened. First Stane's enormous betrayal, then he'd almost died, then his friend and soulmates had shown up - all within the span of twenty minutes. It was too much. And if they hadn't been here, he would've had to have gone after Stane on his own. Tony couldn't even put into words how hard that would've been. 

"Let's sit for a moment, yeah?" James murmured. "Then we can see about getting JARVIS back up."

Wordlessly, Tony nodded and allowed James to help him back to the couch.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony watched the destruction of Obadiah Stane by one of his soulmates on television, comfortably ensconced within the protective embrace of his other soulmate. He was too exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically, to even begin having second thoughts about laying in James’s arms like this. James was there, his arms were strong, his chest was warm, and so there Tony remained.

The battle did not take long. Loki was well and truly pissed. Stane had a rudimentary, over weaponized version of Tony’s armor. In some ways it was more dangerous than the Iron Man armor, but in other ways it was lacking. Right off the bat, Tony could see how sloppily it was built - but that was what happened when you outsourced labor to the cheapest bidder.

Loki seemed to have no fear of the armor; somewhere between the tower and the battle, he had changed clothing and was now wearing what most likely amounted to Asgardian armor, complete with a horned helmet. His hair whipped around his shoulders as he marched towards Stane, covering the distance between them in a handful of strides. Tony jerked, breath catching, as Stane lifted the foot of the armor and slammed it down on top of Loki. By all accounts, the move flattened Loki into the ground. 

James snorted. “Oh Loki, stop playing with your food,” he murmured, hugging Tony tighter.

“Playing?” Tony echoed, puzzled and surprised by the sharp pang of grief that had gone through him when Loki was squashed. It hadn’t occurred to him until that moment just how much he wanted to get to know his soulmate, and the realization that he might have missed his chance hurt.

“Keep watching. Loki isn’t so easily killed,” James told him, tenderly brushing the hair away from Tony’s face.

Tony glanced back at the screen just in time to see James’s words proven correct. The armor lurched, thrown off-balance, and Loki emerged from a hole in the ground. The camera wasn’t close enough to be able to make out the details of Loki’s expression, but somehow Tony thought that Loki was smiling – and if so, it was a smile that spelled of death for Stane.

He watched long enough to see Loki leap effortlessly onto the armor and then closed his eyes, turning his head away like a small child watching a horror film. All those years that he’d mistakenly believed Stane was at his side washed over him again, leaving him feeling like he might throw up. In spite of the betrayal, and the very real pain still running through him, Tony didn’t want to watch Stane die.

“It’s okay,” James said, sensing Tony’s distress. “Loki isn’t merciful, but he’ll make it quick.”

“Is that meant to be comforting?” Tony asked.

“Well… yes. Sorry. I guess I’m not very good at it,” James said sheepishly.

You’re better than you think, Tony didn’t say, even though he wanted to. If it weren’t for James and Loki, he would’ve been right out there in the thick of things. He would’ve had to put in the arc reactor, pull on the armor, and confronted Stane himself. He hoped that he, and Pepper, would’ve come out of the fight alive, but there was no telling what would have happened.

“It’s over,” James breathed after a considerable pause. 

Tony opened an eye just in time to see the screen changing back to a shaken news reporter, but he wasn’t interested in what she had to say. Far more intriguing was the sudden sound of voices out in the hall. He sat upright as much as he could and watched in relief as the doors slid open to admit Rhodey, Pepper, and Loki. Pepper caught sight of them and rushed forward with a cry.

“Tony! Thank god you’re okay. I thought – Stane said –” She hurried over to him and leaned down to hug him.

“Pep,” Tony said, unable to force out more past the momentary lump in his throat. He hugged her back desperately, relieved that she was alright.

“You and I have a long conversation due,” she whispered in his ear, and Tony nodded, having expected that.

He had been honest with Pepper and Rhodey about his soulmates, but he was pretty sure neither of them had believed him about Loki’s magic. Though they hadn’t directly said as much, Tony was positive that they both believed his real return to New York had been somehow traumatizing, and that he’d come up with the idea of a magical soulmate as a weak cover – and then told everyone else, Stane included, that it was the military because Tony knew it was a weak cover.

Looking at Rhodey now, Tony knew that his friends now believed him whole-heartedly. There was only way they could’ve made it back to the tower so quickly, and that was through teleportation. As Pepper backed away, he gave all three of them a quick once-over. None of them looked worse for the wear. Even Loki, though he’d been stepped on by an armor that weighed hundreds of pounds, was harmed.

“For you,” Loki said, coming closer and removing something from his pocket. The arc reactor Stane had stolen. Tony breathed easier at seeing it.

“Thank you,” he said. “Could you – could you put it over there?” He nodded towards the coffee table.

For the briefest moment Loki looked confused, but just as quickly it bled away to understanding. Tony’s skin crawled at the thought of putting something that Obadiah Stane had taken from him back into his body. He’d have to create another core as quickly as he could, because the one he had was rudimentary and not nearly as good. But it was still better than that tainted one.

“Stane has been dealt with,” Rhodey said. “But the police are probably going to want to talk to you and Pepper.”

“I should get cleaned up,” Tony said, sighing. He’d sweat through his shirt and knew he probably smelled awful. And since he didn’t want anyone outside this room knowing exactly what Stane had done, he’d have to put his best foot forward for the NYPD. 

“Loki can help you,” said James. “I’ll explain a few things to your friends.” He stood up, early lifting Tony too, and easily passed Tony over to Loki. It was just like that week immediately following Afghanistan, when Tony’s knees buckled every time he so much as thought about standing. He was more accustomed to James’s help than to Loki’s, but the thought of leaving Loki to explain made Tony want to laugh: he already recognized that Loki would either give a convoluted explanation that would leave Pepper and Rhodey helplessly confused, or he would be a troll who’d delight in freaking them out. It just depended on Loki’s mood.

Loki slowly walked him towards the bedroom. He was even stronger than James; he walked like there was nothing at all to Tony, and the slow pace was purely for Tony’s benefit. Had he given permission, there was no doubt in his mind Loki would’ve swept him off his feet and carried him. And perhaps, had Pepper and Rhodey not been there, Tony might have done just that.

Instead, he whispered, “Did you kill him?”

“Yes,” Loki said without a hint of remorse. 

Tony breathed easier at that admonition, even though it stung. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Loki said softly, and gently sat Tony down on the bed. “Would you prefer if we left?”

“What?” Tony said, blinking in shock.

“It’s the one and only time I’ll ask you,” Loki continued. “Normally I am not so blunt, but you have not exactly been forthcoming. Choose wisely, Tony Stark. If your answer is yes, we will go. But if your answer is no, then we will be a part of your life whether you want us to be or not.”

“No,” Tony blurted out, almost before Loki had finished. They had come to him. They had come _for_ him, when one of the most important people in Tony’s life was trying to kill him. They had come even though Tony had been rude, and even though he had ignored them for much of the time they’d known each other, and even though he hadn’t offered them any reward after all their help bringing him home and healing him.

They had still come.

Loki paused at that, giving Tony an inscrutable look, and Tony held his breath out of fear that Loki might go regardless. But then a small smile curved the corners of Loki’s lips, and his eyes softened in a way that made all the air whoosh out of Tony’s lungs all at once. He found himself leaning forward without conscious thought, but Loki caught his shoulders before he could fall.

As predicted, the press were clamoring to know what was going on. Pepper set up a press release the very next day, which gave Tony most of the night and morning to whip up a new reactor – a process made faster since he had already accomplished it once. Some of the tension in his body eased as he replaced it, and he was able to take the old one and set it on his desk. When the shelves in his living room were repaired, he’d put it back where it belonged.

When he went upstairs, he found Pepper speaking to a most unwelcome visitor. There was no sign of Loki or Rhodey, but James was sitting in the room staring Agent Coulson down. Tony could practically see the curiosity vibrating off of Coulson, and it hit him then that SHIELD likely had no idea what had happened last night. They didn’t know who Loki was. They didn’t know who James was. They didn’t know their connections to Tony; they didn’t know that he, Loki and James were soulmates.

Tony grinned. “Hey Agent.”

“Stark,” Coulson said, managing to conceal the twitch this time.

It felt good having something over SHIELD. Tony sauntered into the room. “What brings you by my not-so-humble abode? Looking for the juicy details about what happened last night?”

Coulson gave him a very dry look. “Why, are you interested in sharing?”

“Not even a little bit,” Tony said shamelessly. He could use JARVIS later to find out exactly what SHIELD knew, but if Coulson was here it couldn’t have been much. That was a relief. Last thing he needed right now was to have information about his soulmates plastered all over the damn place. Stane’s actions were going to cast enough of a spotlight on Stark Industries as it was.

“I figured,” Coulson said, and Pepper covered her mouth to hide her smile. James remained composed, but Tony was pretty sure he saw a twinkle in James’s eyes.

“Well, I gotta maintain that air of mystery,” Tony explained. 

“Mysteries aren’t really my thing,” Coulson replied. “You could start by sharing the real story of how you got out of Afghanistan.”

“Sorry, like I said, I’m just not in the sharing mood.” Tony shrugged, hooking his thumbs in his pockets. 

Coulson sighed. “I’ve written you out a press release that presents all involved, excluding Stane, in the best light possible,” he said. “Pepper has it. We’d appreciate it if you’d use it.”

“I’ll think about it,” Tony said, just for the delight of seeing a scowl cross Coulson’s face before it was quickly smoothed away. Honestly, he wasn’t worried. People would be wondering about Loki, but the camera footage had been shitty. It was unlikely anyone would trace the person involved in the fight back to Loki. And neither Tony nor Iron Man had been anywhere near the fight. Really, it would seem as though a benevolent hero had decided to swoop in and save the day.

Benevolent hero. Ha. He’d have to call Loki that to Loki’s face just to see the look of horror that title would no doubt produce.

“Right,” Coulson said, eyes narrowed. Tony merely smiled benignly. For once, all the of the balls were in his court and he was going to make it count. The days where his life was an open book for people to manipulate and turn on him as they pleased were long gone; he was now keeping things close to the vest and entrusting a select few. And unfortunately for SHIELD, Coulson didn’t make that list.

“Thanks for dropping by,” Tony said sweetly, sitting down beside James. Hidden by the press of their bodies, James’s hand nudged his hip in amusement, and Tony’s grin broadened as Coulson turned on his heel and left. He could get used to this.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
